Moonlight Shadow
by Darkest Dawn
Summary: The last that ever she saw him, carried away by a moonlight shadow.


Well, this is a weird one-shot, in that it is a _possible_ epilogue for a fic that I'm _thinking _about writing. The ending for that story may or may not be the one told in this story. I just felt like writing this, and I really just wanted to post it because I fell in love with it. It's also inspired by the song "Moonlight Shadow" I'm not to sure who did the original song, but I have the trance version by Groove Coverage and I just love it so hope you enjoy.

_**"The last that ever she saw him, carried away by a moonlight shadow."**_

**Moonlight Shadow**

By

Leah

The ginger haired teen raced through the empty halls of her school, her steps soft and near silent. Within minutes she was standing in front of the two large doors leading outside. With one last glance over her shoulder, she wrenched open one of the doors and skirted outside. A harsh wind blew through her thin cloak, stinging her eyes, but it didn't stop her.

Glancing around cautiously, she continued scurrying through the grounds. She was nearing the edge of the inky black lake when she felt two strong arms slither around her waist. She let out a near inaudible gasp before spinning to face her captor. Before she could let out a cry, her lips were covered by another's. Her fingers wound themselves into his silky hair as she let herself melt into his strong hold. She pulled him closer, her body wanting -needing- to feel the things he stirred within her.

They parted and she felt him tug her arm, she let him pull her to a boulder by the lake where they both sat.

"You shouldn't be here." He murmured, his eyes staring straight ahead into the forest, but she doubted he was really even looking at it.

"Neither should you." She saw him nod from the corner of her eyes. She knew he got her _real_ meaning.

Seconds passed in silence, then minutes, she seemed to find herself constantly turning to look back at the large castle so close behind them. Someone could be looking out a window and-

"No one will see us." He said, his eyes still focused on the woods ahead of them. She nodded and looked to the side of his face before turning her gaze to the forest that intrigued him so.

"No one will hear us there either." She whispered and for a moment she thought she heard him chuckle. "Why are you-"

"To say goodbye." She nodded again.

"Oh," She paused and watched as he picked up a small pebble near to him. "It's been almost-"

"I know," He tossed the rock into the water, making it skim the top a few times before sinking to the depths of the lake. The only evidence of its path were the tens of ripples that now filled the surface of the crystalline lake. "But I also know you Hermione. I know that you must have thought of that night millions of times."

She watched the ripples for a minute or more, she wasn't sure exactly how long she stared, but then again time didn't matter to her much anymore. Her expression never shifted, nor did she seem surprised when the ripples shimmered and a scene began to play out on the waters surface.

"The night you were killed?" She whispered, and didn't need to look to know he nodded. "So this is just another dream then?"

He didn't answer, she didn't need one anyway. She had known it was a dream from the moment it began. This faux world was so unlike the real one now.

Hogwarts no longer stood, it hadn't for years. She knew that the people who were in there now weren't real; most of them were dead anyway. Ginny was gone, Harry was a recluse, and Ron had been institutionalized in the permanent psychiatric ward at St. Mungos.

And he was also gone. The boy that now sat beside her and held her hand occasionally brushing his thumb across her fingers. He died a long time ago.

"Sometimes I wish life were a dream. I wish that I'd wake up and everything would be fine. That my friends would be alive and well." Her lips turned up in a withering smile and her eyes connected with his. "That you would still be alive."

Her eyes dropped to the water and looked at the scene that played on the surface like a movie. There was no sound, but she didn't need it to know what was happening. She'd seen this "movie" enough times in her dreams and memories to know every word by heart, but -like any truly good movie- she still never expected the ending. It always left her asking "why?"

They were arguing here, she almost felt herself smile looking back at the time when he was alive, when they were so in love. He had forbidden her fight in the war, and she of course fought over that. Her words still echoed loudly in her head.

"I won't let you go out and fight while I stay locked away worried for your life." She said out loud with a bitter smile, her words coming out in sync with the movement of her lips in the watery scene.

"Hermione don't do this now. Just please, promise me that you'll be safe. Promise me you'll hide, promise me you'll be here for me when this is over. Promise me that now." He muttered along the lines from years passed. They were some of the last words they ever spoke to each other.

Hermione pulled her gaze from the water, but still muttered the words that sealed his fate that night, "I promise you Draco."

He let out a hollow laugh and watched the two teenagers in the water kiss before the scene shimmered and dissolved. "You lied then." He said softly but without conviction or malice. He was just stating a fact, nothing more, nothing less. "I knew you would. But I couldn't help hope you wouldn't."

She pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her free arm around her knees, her other hand was still in his. She wished things went as planned, then she would have been holding the real Draco's hand right now. Not a ghost of him that visited her dreams. "I was a fool."

He shook his head and picked up another stone. "We both were. We were fools fueled by a dream that love would save us and we'd get our fairytale ending." He smirked lazily and threw the rock into the water, where a whole new scene began to play in the water.

It was the final moments of his life.

Her eyes dropped to the water. She sucked in a shuddering breath and tried to blink away the stinging in her eyes. She knew this scene all to well, and the ending always left her feeling numb.

Actually, since that day she had always felt numb.

The day she lost all the things she loved. The day she lost the one person who meant the world to her.

The day he died to save her life.

"Why won't you rest Draco?" Her words were near silent as her eyes remained on the scene of witches and wizards throwing curses at each other. She spotted herself and winced, it was almost the end.

"Why should I? How can I rest while you suffer every day? It's been ten years Hermione, but you've never been with anyone else. I can't leave, not with you like this."

Hermione didn't respond she was transfixed by the scene in the water, but she had heard him. Her hand raised to her lips and her eyes began to water, but they stayed fixed on the water. She watched the moment from her past with unblinking eyes. There she was, dueling with some hooded wizard, completely unaware of the other person behind her with their wand pointed to her back.

She didn't see the person's lips move, but she knew a curse had been fired, one with enough power to end her life, slowly and painfully. Ron was right there -she didn't notice then- but he made no effort to move, only stared. But the blue streak of light never hit her, instead it collided with another body that moved in the way.

Hermione turned seconds too late to see what had happened. With one final curse she finished off the Death Eater she had been fighting, only to fall to her knees next to the fallen boy, who was bleeding profusely from a large cut in his chest and sputtering blood from his mouth. She saw her lips move, but she knew that she wasn't saying anything then.

He called out to a witch that had just won a battle against a Death Eater not too far away and with what little strength he had left he told the witch to make sure she was safe and to hide her somewhere. Hermione knew the woman was Pansy and even though her own grief had consumed her, Pansy pushed away her tears and grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her to her feet.

_"Come on Granger, we can't stay here now."_ She remembered Pansy saying, her voice choked as she tried to drag the other girl behind her and keep away her tears.

Hermione saw herself snap out of her shocked daze and slip into hysteria. She watched as she screamed, wailed and pushed against Pansy to go back to Draco's dying form.

_"Let go! Let me go to him! LET ME GO!"_ She saw her lips move as Pansy continued to drag her through the battlefield that was littered with the unmoving forms of her friends, teachers, and Death Eaters alike, but her eyes remained locked on Draco.

_"No."_ The other girl said firmly, her eyes locked ahead while she pulled Hermione with surprising strength. "_He told me to make sure you were safe and I refuse to let him down! I owe him that much at least."_ Hermione watched as Pansy dragged her back into Hogwarts, fighting off Death Eaters along the way, and locked her inside the Astronomy tower with more advanced spells than she thought the girl knew.

The images blurred and the inky black water replaced the scene.

"She died...she died making sure no Death Eaters would get to me." Hermione's voice was thick with suppressed tears, even though a few escaped while she watched the events of the past.

Draco still remained silent and looked out to the forest before taking in a shuddered breath and turning his grey eyes down to the girl he loved so much he gave up his life for her. "I could never understand why she would stay by my side after finding out about us. But I am eternally grateful to her. You deserved to live Hermione. I didn't, and Pansy would surely say she didn't deserve life either." His eyes turned up to the moon and he smiled sadly.

"We've made too many mistakes in the short time we had on earth. Too many transgressions that could only be remedied by our deaths. But you-" He turned his grey eyes to her, and sent her a loving smile. Her heart clenched with sadness and longing. She loved his eyes so much. _'Like the London sky after a storm, or a single ray of moonlight on a cloudy night.'_ She had once said about them.

"You Hermione, you deserve life. You deserve happiness, you deserve so much more than I could ever give you."

"So you died and left me?" Her voice was soft and he could hear her sadness. "You left me alone. I was so empty without you. I still am empty without you. You are what I deserve Draco! You are the only thing I ever wanted, just you." She shook her head and looked to the lake, only feel him hook his thumb under her chin and turn her face back to his.

"But I could never deserve you." He kissed her lips softly and Hermione felt her tears spill out of her eyes into the kiss, tinging the sweetness with salt. He wanted to say goodbye, he wanted her to move on, but she could not. No, he held her heart and no other man could ever make her feel as loved as he had, even without saying the words.

Her chin trembled as she fought with her tears. "I have to leave Hermione." He whispered when he pulled away, though his lips were still close to hers. She nodded, not trusting her voice.

He wiped away one of her tears and gave her one last kiss, it made her nearly sob to know that she would never in life feel his lips on hers again. "I love you Hermione, more than anything."

She gasped and her eyes flew up, he had never said that to her before, but he was gone, disappeared like a shadow.

Seconds later she woke up with tears streaming down her cheeks and sobbed for hours. When the suns rays peeked into her room she wiped her face and got out of bed, she knew she could not be seen like that, and had to get on with her day.

She still had two ten-year-old children to take care of.


End file.
